WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Mountain to Sound Outfitters burglarized, again

| Crime | Triangle | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

You would think this snowy weather would make it a memorable week for Mountain to Sound Outfitters, a West Seattle business that specializes in part in snow gear. But instead, for proprietor Greg Whittaker, it’s memorable in a bad way.

His shop at 3602 SW Alaska was broken into early today for the third time in a week. We heard about it from a reader who was passing by early this morning and saw SFD on the scene cleaning up broken glass. We then obtained the police report and followed up with Whittaker. The police-report narrative says officers arrived to find what the photo above shows, as well as a “large amount of ski equipment lying on the ground outside of the business along with several display hangers.” An audible alarm was sounding. The burglar(s) were gone; SFD was called for help “to secure the damaged door.”

When we contacted Whittaker by email, he said this was the third burglary this week at the shop, and added: “This is completely disheartening. We buy the gear to help West Seattle enjoy the winter and now key items are gone from our store. Keep an eye out for kids’ jackets, skateboards, sunglasses, gloves, goggles. I’d like to ask the community to keep watch in our block, as it seems like they are getting bolder.” If you have any information, the SPD incident number is 21-340896.

Graciano December 28, 2021 (2:57 pm)

How is this ever going to stop?! Are the victims of these crimes going to have to take it into their own hands to make them stop? These crimes are just way out of control

Kk50 December 28, 2021 (5:22 pm)

What do you mean by “ take it into their owns hands” ? Like lie in wait and make a citizens arrest, not clear on what you are proposing the owners to do? Sounds like there was appropriate response by police when alarm was activated.
- Blinkyjoe December 29, 2021 (8:26 am)
  
  KK50, After break-in #2, that’s exactly what I would do.

KrazzieK December 28, 2021 (3:10 pm)

☹️

Admiral Mom December 28, 2021 (3:25 pm)

Wow! This is so sad for a wonderful small business to experience!!! I’m so sorry for them. The crime in West Seattle is exploding between this and Lafayette Elementary and so many more! I don’t even feel safe walking around the neighborhood anymore. I hope we can start prosecuting these criminals to start bringing law and order back to our neighborhood and businesses.

Maria December 28, 2021 (3:27 pm)

Shop local and don’t give in to all this.

WS resident December 28, 2021 (4:14 pm)

This is so sad. We went to the Can Bar yesterday and their front door was also smashed in with a bunch of stuff stolen. So sad for all of these local business owners.

1994 December 28, 2021 (4:19 pm)

Try a couple of extra large, very noisy, dogs for times the business is closed? An ear splitting sound if the business alarm is triggered (minus the dogs)? A metal roll shutter? Cameras to record the illegal entry of creepers? Sorry this is happening over and over.

Karen December 28, 2021 (4:57 pm)

So sorry and SAD commentary of our area and times. I hate winter and all that it brings but I will be supporting this business as soon as the snow is gone. Hope other WS residents will do the same for all of our local businesses

WS Guy December 28, 2021 (5:33 pm)

It’s clear that Seattle’s current leadership and policy direction have failed. In so many ways. But to fail public safety is to fail the most basic and fundamental role of government. When will the council and Mayor step up and admit this and change course! Follow SF Mayor London Breed and recognize the mistakes. Defunding failed; police “accountability” failed; lax enforcement failed; “bail reform” failed. I’m afraid that getting back to normalcy will now require a much more severe crackdown than simply maintaining enforcement would have delivered.

Neighbor December 28, 2021 (7:01 pm)

I don’t think the SPD budget has changed yet. You can’t blame this on defunding. Police aren’t tasked with protecting small businesses, they are tasked with collecting evidence. If you want crime to stop you need to prevent people from turning to crime. That’s not something police are capable of.
- Admyrl Byrd December 28, 2021 (9:49 pm)
  
  Technically the latest budget cut hasn’t fully been in effect. However, you can’t deny the deliberate slow-walking of filling open roles, allowing the department to run at lower levels without replacement and the horrendous de-prioritization of any crime that isn’t life or death (and even the response times then can be questionable). Clearly there are two camps in this city; one that thinks crime is inevitable given the wealth disparity brought on by greedy capitalists, and one that thinks we could do better if we actually took enforcement and deterrence seriously. We’ve tried chaos, how about we go back and ask ourselves – why are there laws? Are they there to be enforced?
  - El Jefe' December 29, 2021 (3:51 pm)
    
    Well said Admyrl Byrd
  - Jason C. December 30, 2021 (1:14 pm)
    
    Laws are only for those without money. Those who have it often are held by a different set of rules. Bribing, i mean, lobbying out the law makers helps. Have enough money and speeding tickets are what ever, and have even more money you can run people over while intoxicated and walk away free. I find it laughable you call this chaos, we still are no where near 1980’s level crime. The crime covered in this story doesn’t even have a violence component, for all we know the cold weather gear is going to be used by those who can’t afford rather than being sold. Tossing these non-violent offenders in the mix behind bars with those who do commit violent crimes can turn the non-violent offenders into violent ones. Just fear mongering to shovel more tax money into the prison system. I guess you’ll house the homeless in one way or another.
- Resident December 29, 2021 (9:59 am)
  
  Steal food I understand. People don’t need high end ski clothing, skateboards and goggles. It is something they wanted and M2S had it.I am all for empathy but we need to hold our fellow people to a higher standard. Providing blanket statements like this is not going to lead us in the direction we need to go. This was a crime of opportunity not a crime of need. We need leaders in this city not excuses.
West Seattleite December 29, 2021 (2:29 pm)

Agreed. SPD has lost around 20% of its force – for all the obvious reasons. No wonder crime is up due to the loss of law enforcement and severely limited accountability.